A bloghop, hosted by some Twitter friends The Geek Twins, is happening today. The topic is quite simple: “Who is your all-time favorite alien individual (Martian or otherwise)”. Really narrowing down my choice to one specific alien has been quite a task. I’ve gone back to my early experiences with sci-fi for this answer. I’m not going to carve it into stone, but I’m happy with my pick.

One quality you can find in almost any alien is sexiness. Whether they are “phoning home” or trying to escape The Collective. There have been many sexy aliens, but before Trisha Helfer played BSG’s Six, before Jeri Ryan played Seven of Nine there was the original femme fatale Jane Badler as Diana. Diana is the Commander of the Visitors a race of human looking aliens that came Earth in the made-for-TV miniseries V. With giant mother ships hovering over major cities, they spoke of coming in peace but they had a much more sinister goal in mind.

As these things usually go, the Visitors had an ultimate clandestine mission. They were actually here for our water, minerals and us, as food! The Visitors were actually reptilian humanoids disguised as human beings.

In the 1980s, NBC television was interested in sci-fi after the success of films such as Star Wars. V was created by Kenneth Johnson as a political thriller with a sci-fi twist. The story was an allegory to the fascist Nazi regime of World War 2, the term “V” had a duel meaning V as in the Visitors the name the people of Earth gave to the new aliens and V for Victory the rally cry of the human resistance. Originally, it was a single television mini-series simply titled “V”; then came it’s follow up “V: The Final Battle” it’s success even spawned a series between 1984-85.

Starring in all of these adventures was one of the sexiest aliens to ever leave a mark in my memory. The cruel, arrogant Commander Diana of the Visitors! Reknowned as the spokesperson for this new alien race, she was the public face for the Visitors. Diana used her sexuality to get what she needed, sometimes during a ruthless interrogation or among the Visitor’s hierarchy to establish her superiority. Diana is probably best known for a scene where she let her human disguise down for a moment to consume a live rat whole.

Jane Badler most recently reprised her role of the character Diana in the 2009, ABC remake of the V series. In the remake Diana is an outcast, betrayed by her daughter Anna (Morena Baccarin) and kept secretly in a prison cell on one of the Visitor’s mother ships.

I happened upon a Diana Tribute video lurking on YouTube (Warning: very old Spoilers and music):

“How does this relate to video games? Isn’t this a video game blog?”

A video game for V was released in 1986 by Ocean Software Ltd. for the Commodore 64. The game itself is very primitive compared to what we consider a video game these days. I’ve never played this or even knew about until I started writing this. Here is a fun review from Computer Gamer magazine in 1986.

You know, I never did watch the old V series (or the new one, for that matter), but it always sounded intriguing to me. I’m a sucker for alien invasion storylines, especially the sinister, subtle ones. I’ll have to get around to checking it out one of these days!

I can’t say that I was ever very informed on V- it was a few years before my time. But Diana seems like an interesting archetype, and proof that while appearances can be attractive, true sexiness is measured by a woman’s confidence. Evil or not, she could have any man in her thrall.

I guess I’m showing my age but I still remember anxiously waiting for the original V series to begin. Loved it, hated Diana. Jane had played on something else before that, don’t remember now what it was, but she was a villian on it too. Seems like it was a soap opera. Anyway, liked the newest V also. Very good recap. Now following your site. Julie @ http://icreatepurtythangs.blogspot.com